减少儿童灾祸风险公约

Child activists attending a Conference on Global Disaster Risk Reduction are urging governments to endorse an action plan to minimize the impacts of natural disasters on their lives. More than 600 children in 21 countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America were consulted by child advocacy organizations in the development of the so-called Children’s Charter for Disaster Risk Reduction, which will be presented to those taking part in the conference.

在日内瓦举行的“全球减少灾害风险会议”上，热心儿童问题的人士呼吁各国政府，支持一项将威胁儿童生命安全的自然灾害降到最低限度的行动计划。促进儿童福利的组织在推动“减少儿童灾难风险契约”的运动中，咨询了非洲，亚洲和拉丁美洲21个国家里的600多名儿童。这项契约将递交与会者。

The aim of the charter is to raise awareness about the need to put children at the heart of disaster risk reduction as they are among those who suffer most from catastrophic events.

这项契约的目标是让人们认识到，需要把儿童置于减轻灾难风险的中心地位。因为儿童是在灾难性事件中受害最严重的群体之一。

The statistics are grim. The United Nations reports about half of all people affected or killed by disasters are children. It estimates 175 million children are likely to be affected by climate-related disasters each year. And this number probably will rise as the frequency and intensity of natural disasters increases.

有关这方面的数据令人十分担忧。根据联合国的报告，受灾难影响或者在灾难中死亡的人中，一半是儿童。联合国估计，每年都有大约一亿七千五百万儿童在与气候有关的灾害中很可能受到影响。而且，随着自然灾害日益频繁和更加强烈，这个数字可能还会增加。

Goodwill Ambassador for the U.N. Children’s Fund Agnes Chang was in Tokyo when the earthquake and tsunami struck the northeastern coast of Japan on March 11.

今年3月11日，当日本东北海岸受到地震和海啸侵袭的时候，联合国儿童基金会的亲善大使陈美龄正在东京。

She says in the three worst affected prefectures - Fukushima, Miyagi and Iwate - 378 children died, and 191 went missing. She says most children survived because the tsunami struck when they were at school.

她说，日本福岛、宫城和岩手这三个受灾害影响最严重的县中，共有378名儿童死亡，191人失踪。她说，大部分儿童之所以幸存下来，是因为海啸袭来时，他们还在学校。

“But how come these children are saved. How did they survive? I think there are two reasons," Chang said. "One is because of the safe school structure. And the second reason is because of the preparedness of the school. The schools are well-prepared. Manuals are provided to educators on the basis of preparedness, and regular drills are compulsory. Disaster-appropriate drills are done regularly at school, at all schools, all over Japan.”

陈美龄说，“这些孩子是怎么获救的？他们怎么幸存下来的？我想有两个原因。第一是学校的建筑结构安全，第二是因为学校的防备工作。学校都做好完善的准备。他们向教职员工发放有关防备灾害的手册，并且必须要进行定期演练。日本的学校，所有的学校，日本所有的学校都必须定期做预防灾害演习。”Relatively few children died in Japan because of preparedness. Compare this with the 2008 Szechuan earthquake, which killed more than 9,000 children. These deaths are blamed on the shoddy construction of the schools in the region.

由于准备工作妥当，日本儿童在灾难中的死亡人数相对很少。而与2008年的四川大地震相比，那次地震有超过九千名儿童死亡。人们将那些孩子的遇难，归咎于当地学校的豆腐渣工程。

Tricia, a young activist, comes from a disaster-prone country. The Philippines is subject to typhoons, earthquakes, storm surges, landslides, flash floods and other disasters. She has seen the destruction and suffering resulting from such catastrophic events.

特里西亚是一名与会的年轻女孩，来自一个多灾难的国家菲律宾。菲律宾经常发生台风、地震、暴风雨，泥石流，山洪爆发和其它灾害。她亲眼目睹，也亲身体验过这些灾难带来的破坏。

She tells representatives attending a special roundtable on Children for Resilience that children can do a great deal to reduce risks and save lives.

特里西亚在一次有关儿童灾后恢复工作的圆桌会议上，告诉与会的代表们，孩子在减少风险、挽救生命方面，能做很多事。

“Disaster reduction education is important since it raises the awareness to children and children could play a very big role in disaster risk reduction…The children must have the knowledge on what to do and how to respond to these disasters," Tricia said. "We play a very big role for the future and we have opinions that we feel should be heard. I believe, too, that we can do so much more than the adults can. So I hope all the people here today will prioritize and help the children and sign the Children’s Charter pledge for the children.”

她说，“减轻灾害的教育是非常重要的，因为它能提高儿童的认识。同时，孩子们可以在减轻灾害任务中扮演非常重要的角色。孩子们必须懂得该做什么以及如何对这些灾难做出反应。我们为将来要担负重任，因此我们的意见也必须受到注意。我也相信，我们能做的比大人还多。因此，我希望所有今天在场的人，都会将这件事列为当务之急，帮助儿童，在这项减少儿童灾难风险契约上签名，为孩子们做出承诺。”

The main points of the Charter include the need to make schools safe; to protect children before, during and after a disaster; to give children the information they need; to build safe infrastructure; and to make sure disaster risk reduction reaches the most vulnerable people.

这项契约的要点包括需要加强校内安全，制定灾难发生前后及发生期间对儿童的保护措施，向儿童提供他们需要的信息，建立安全基础设施，以及确保使那些最容易受到灾害打击的人们减低灾难风险。